The document discusses how workflows in WebGUI can automate routine tasks. It provides examples of core production workflows for maintenance tasks, custom workflows for notifications, and add-on workflows from third parties. Workflows are made up of activities that are triggered by events and move through different states. The document encourages users to develop and share new workflow ideas and activities.

1. Automation:
The Power of
Workflows
William McKee
william@knowmad.com
WebGUI Users Conference 2010

2. Automation
“Any job that depends
on routines-- that can
be reduced to a set of
rules, or broken down
into a set of repeatable
steps-- is at risk.”
– Daniel Pink

3. WebGUI Workflow Engine
“An event triggered state machine and execution system.”
– JT Smith

4. WebGUI Workflow Engine
“An event triggered state machine and execution system.”
– JT Smith

5. WebGUI Workflow Engine
What you need to know:

6. WebGUI Workflow Engine
What you need to know:
➔
Workflows – containers for activities

7. WebGUI Workflow Engine
What you need to know:
➔
Workflows – containers for activities
➔
Activities – where the actual work gets
accomplished

8. WebGUI Workflow Engine
What you need to know:
➔
Workflows – containers for activities
➔
Activities – where the actual work gets
accomplished
➔
States – running, waiting, stalled, complete

9. WebGUI Workflow Engine
What you need to know:
➔
Workflows – containers for activities
➔
Activities – where the actual work gets
accomplished
➔
States – running, waiting, stalled, complete
➔
Triggers – time, user/system event, other
workflows, manual initiation

10. WebGUI Workflow Engine
What you need to know:
➔
Workflows – containers for activities
➔
Activities – where the actual work gets
accomplished
➔
States – running, waiting, stalled, complete
➔
Triggers – time, user/system event, other
workflows, manual initiation
➔
Modes - Parallel, Serial, Singleton

11. Production Workflows
(core)

12. Maintenance Routines
Goal: Perform hourly, daily and weekly
maintenance tasks.
Trigger: Time-based
Activities:
• Delete expired sessions
• Update calendar feeds
• Delete temp files & prune cache
• Archive old stories
• Delete assets from trash
• Move clipboard items >30 days to trash

13. Custom Workflows
(core)

14. Send Notification
Goal: Receive an email when a new user
registers on your Website.
Trigger: On Create User
Activity: Notify About
User (WebGUI::User)

15. Add On Workflows

16. Page Validator
Goal: Receive an email notice if a page
does not validate against the W3C Markup
Validation Service.
Trigger: Time-based (e.g., add to Daily
Maintenance workflow)
Activity: Download W3C Validator activity
code from the WebGUI Marketplace (see
resources for link)

17. Mailchimp Integration
Goal: Add subscriber to a Mailchimp
mailing list. Can be integrated into any
forms on your site.
Trigger: Add Entry
Activity: Download OptIn activity code
from the WebGUI Marketplace (coming
soon!)

18. Personal User Area
Goal: Create personal user areas when a new
user registers on your Website.
Example: Setup a personal blog or dashboard
for your registered Website visitors.
Trigger: On Create User
Activity: Download CreateUserHomeSkeleton
activity code by Peter McBryde from the
WebGUI Marketplace

19. Custom Workflows

20. Hot Folder
Goal: To provide a dropbox that is polled for
newly uploaded files which need processing.
Example: Validate & process a “job” file
placed into an FTP folder.
Trigger: Time-based
Activity: Custom (see “Writing Workflow
Activities” presentation for example code to
get started)

21. PuSH Publisher
Goal: Push site updates out to a
PubSubHubbub hub (a real-time web protocol).
Trigger: Time-based (until more hooks
become available in WebGUI codebase)
Activity: Custom.

22. Help Out!
• Share your ideas for useful
workflows in the forums or IRC
• Add new workflows to the Bazaar
• Promote new triggers/hooks for
the built-in assets (RFE's)

23. Thank You!
William McKee
WebGUI Forums: knowmad
IRC: knowmad
Email: william@knowmad.com

24. Bonus Material
Interesting but less useful
possibilities for workflows.

25. Social Media Monitor
Goal: To send alerts of mentions in social
media.
Trigger: Time-based
Example: Poll social media sites such as
Twitter or Facebook for media mentions. Send
an IM or email when results are found.
Activity: Custom.

26. Business Process Manager
Goal: To manage a real-world workflow process.
Example: Limit access to your site for new user
registrations until they have confirmed their email.
Implementation: A workflow would run when the
user confirmed their account. This workflow would
move the account into the proper membership list.
(It could also be used to check for payments).
Activity: Custom activity.

27. Happy Birthday!
Goal: To provide a special message and email
for a user's birthday.
Trigger: Time-based
Example: Place a birthday message on site &
send email to user.
Activity: Custom singleton. Run once a day to
check birthday in user profiles.

28. Sundial
Goal: To keep an external file up-to-date.
Trigger: Time-based
Example: Sundial. On each run, update the
external page with current time. Use
scheduler to update file as appropriate.
Activity: Custom singleton.

29. Screenscraper
Goal: Retrieve data from an external site.
Trigger: Time-based
Example: Collect data that's not part of an
RSS feed for display on your site.
Activity: Custom.